Chapter 302: Preparatory Work

The laborers destined for Sanya had been in training for over three months. They were healthy young men recruited from among the immigrants, totaling more than 3,000. They were organized and trained according to a military system.

This group of laborers would land as construction workers and, after completing the infrastructure work, would be transferred to become employees of the Tiandu Mining Bureau.

According to the Duke’s wishes, this was to be the Transmigration Group’s construction corps, but Zhuo Tianmin, the project manager from the Lin’gao Construction Company assigned to the project, was not at all keen on this designation.

“I think we should just call it an engineering team. Calling it a corps is too complicated. Besides, how can a construction company command a corps?”

After the military training, this large engineering team began to receive professional training. The military training was mainly to improve their organization and discipline; the Transmigration Group did not intend to use them for fighting. The army would dispatch a battalion to accompany them to Yulin Fort, which would then be permanently stationed there. For this, the army was granted permission to recruit a new battalion from the recently quarantined immigrants to fill the vacancy.

This infantry battalion would be the basic armed force of the Transmigration Group in the future Sanya area, used on the one hand to counter possible local armed forces and the Ming army, and on the other hand, more importantly, to deter and suppress any rebellion within the engineering team. The Executive Committee believed that given the harsh local environment and the intensity of the construction work, such incidents were almost inevitable.

Zhuo Tianmin presented the Executive Committee with a list of the various skilled workers he needed. In addition to the more than 1,000 basic laborers, the entire construction engineering team of the Lin’gao Construction Company would also have to be deployed. Various departments would also have to dispatch some of their skilled workers to join the team.

Even so, the shortfall was still large. Therefore, Zhuo Tianmin requested the Executive Committee to coordinate and allocate skilled workers to train the engineering team—this would at least solve the problem for some of the less technically demanding jobs.

Zhuo Tianmin established five training classes, drawing personnel from the laborers to participate.

The first was a construction worker training class, taught by the rough carpenters, masons, and plumbers from the Lin’gao Construction Company’s engineering team.

The second was a blasting training class, specializing in explosive engineering, taught by the sappers under Pan Da.

The third was a road construction training class, led by Shan Daoqian and Li Chiqi, which included not only road construction and track laying, but also vehicle repair and driving skills.

The fourth was a collection training class, trained by personnel from the Far-Range Exploration Team. The Yulin Port area was still a barren land, rich in timber and wild animal and plant resources, which would be a pity not to utilize. They would learn logging, fishing, gathering, and hunting skills.

The last was a health training class, led by the Ministry of Health, to train a group of basic health workers. The Ministry of Health would also send a health team with them, but compared to the large-scale operation with an initial landing of over 1,000 people, followed by another 1,000, a seven-person health team was a drop in the bucket. A large amount of basic health care work needed to be done.

In addition to the laborers for construction and mining, Wu De, following instructions, had already selected three hundred households from among the immigrants for wholesale migration. This group of immigrants would be led by Hu Wumei, also known as Fatty Hu, a former pirate leader under Zhu Cailao, and would become residents of the new Anyoule City.

When selecting this group of immigrants, their occupations were deliberately mixed: most were farmers, but there were also craftsmen and small merchants. They would arrive at Yulin Port after the infrastructure work was completed.

To help the engineering team adapt to the upcoming sea voyage and avoid being unable to work due to seasickness upon landing, Zhuo Tianmin arranged for the laborers to sleep on empty ships in Bopu Port for acclimatization training.

For the ship to transport the engineering team, Zhuo Tianmin chose the Qionghai Coal—for no other reason than that it was the largest ship in the Transmigration Group’s possession, capable of carrying a large number of people at once. Chen Haiyang immediately recalled the Qionghai Coal from its coal transport duties, replacing it with smaller ships.

After being recalled, the Qionghai Coal was renamed the Sanya No. 1 after its holds were cleaned. Its main task was to transport personnel. The ship was densely fitted with numerous hammocks and bunks, and footboards and handrails for latrines were installed on both sides of the ship.

For transporting materials, a 1,500-ton flat-deck self-propelled cargo barge was chosen as an auxiliary vessel. Its large cargo capacity and shallow draft were very useful for landing operations. This ship had been dormant in Bopu due to fuel issues, serving as a floating crane. Now, its crane had been removed, the hull cleaned, the cabins unsealed, and the empty fuel tanks were reconnected to the Fengcheng’s fuel lines and refilled with diesel.

“Can this ship still move?” Wang Luobin was a little worried.

“Definitely,” Meng De assured him. “When it was mothballed, the engine room was properly maintained according to regulations before being sealed. It’s only been a little over a year; there won’t be any problems.”

A test run of the generator confirmed that everything was normal. The self-propelled barge was not technologically advanced and was a very sturdy and durable vessel.

This self-propelled barge was given a new name, the Xunjing (Swift Whale). It, along with the Dajing (Great Whale), which was undergoing modernization and being fitted with a diesel engine, would be responsible for transporting the heavy equipment for this operation.

Wang Luobin, along with the personnel from the machinery department, boarded the Fengcheng again, wandering through its vast engine room, occasionally conferring in low voices.

“Chief Engineer Wang, if we want to get the auxiliary engines running, a small gasifier probably won’t cut it,” Jiang Ye said, pushing up the safety helmet on his head. The dark engine room reeked of engine oil, and the air was thick. Since the Fengcheng’s auxiliary engines had been shut down, the auxiliary engine room had been sealed, and no one had entered except for regular monthly inspections.

“It’s such a waste not to run such large auxiliary engines. The power output of these two auxiliary engines alone is equivalent to many portable steam engines.”

Wang Luobin’s task was to get the generators on the Fengcheng running again to supply part of the power to the shore. The portable steam engines that had been working at the Bopu power station were scheduled to be transported to Yulin Port to serve as mobile power stations for the first wave of construction workers.

“It’s a pity the diesel output from the coal coking plant is so low.”

“Let’s burn coconut oil. The ship’s auxiliary engines are quite durable; they don’t need high-quality diesel.”

“First, the viscosity of coconut oil is too high. It probably won’t work without a hydrogenation process. Second, the output of coconut oil is also very limited, and these ship’s auxiliary engines are gas guzzlers,” Wang Luobin said, looking at the large, dark marine diesel auxiliary engine. He wished he could dismantle the generator it drove; it would be much easier to power it with a steam engine.

However, dismantling this generator set, transporting it ashore, and getting it to run again would be a huge amount of work, and there was no guarantee of success. Generators, especially high-power ones, were among the Transmigration Group’s most important assets.

“How about a continuous-feed gasifier?”

“The pipelines are difficult to build. Not only do they need to be well-sealed, but they also have to be laid over the water. I’m afraid our current materials won’t do,” Wang Luobin shook his head.

“How about building it on the ship?” Xiao Gui said. “We can build the gasifier directly on the deck. The pipelines can either utilize the existing pipelines in the engine room, or we can build our own.”

“Everything else is fine, I’m just worried about an explosion,” Wang Luobin thought. This seemed like an easy solution.

“The problem is not too big,” the gasifier proposal was very much to Jiang Ye’s liking. “We can use better materials for the gasifier, install it directly on the deck, and surround it with explosion-proof sandbags.”

After discussion, they decided to install a gasifier on the deck of the Fengcheng. This decision greatly annoyed Li Di—not only would the graceful lines of the large iron ship be marred by a gas bag on the aft deck, but it would also be surrounded by sandbags and have a coal bunker… It was just too ugly.

But electricity was a top priority, and Li Di’s objections were all invalid. His objections on the grounds of military security were also rejected—someone had argued that apart from the Transmigration Group’s own cannons, no one else had the ability to hit the deck of the Fengcheng.

“Don’t worry, as soon as the petroleum industry is up and running, we’ll dismantle this thing,” Wang Luobin consoled him.

“When will that be?”

“Not long. It will definitely be done in the second five-year plan.”

Chen Haiyang had no objections. Without the auxiliary engines running, the Fengcheng was practically a dead ship. Relying on power from the shore, it could only operate a small amount of equipment and couldn’t utilize many of its onboard facilities. However, he expressed concern about safety—with gas and coal piled on the deck, a fire or explosion would be disastrous.

“For now, we can only be careful. There’s no such thing as foolproof in industrial production,” Wang Luobin said. “The ship already has water pumps. The key is to have the systems and responsibilities in place. It wouldn’t be a bad idea for the marines stationed on the ship to conduct fire drills in their spare time, in addition to their regular training.”

“I’ll focus on this,” Chen Haiyang said. “You also need to instruct the operators to work safely. Although the Fengcheng is currently ‘docked,’ it is also a symbol of our power. If something happens, it would be no less than the shattering of a myth.”

Once the Fengcheng’s auxiliary engines were running and connected to the grid, the four mobile 100-horsepower portable steam engines at the Bopu power station were all shut down. These machines were sent to the machine factory to be dismantled for their first major overhaul. In the future of the power sector, the Industrial and Energy Committee would no longer use portable steam engines as the main power generation equipment.

“Since it’s been proven that diesel engines can run on gas, all the diesel generator sets in stock can now be put into use,” Wang Luobin instructed Chang Kaishen of the power company.

The several sets of diesel generators brought by the Transmigration Group had been mothballed as reserve equipment after a period of operation before the Bairen hydroelectric station started generating power, due to a lack of fuel. Now that the gas substitute had been successful, the generator sets could be put back into operation.

The portable steam engines and their associated generator sets, after being cleaned and repaired, would be installed on two new small, dedicated power generation boats built by the shipyard to serve as mobile power stations. Compared to diesel generator sets, their biggest advantage was the convenience of fuel, making them very suitable for this era where there was no petroleum fuel except in Lin’gao.